SBA meetings

Join an active community of veteran and novice beekeepers and listen to talks from a variety of experts.

Meetings are held at 7PM on the second Wednesday of every month and are open to the public.

Spring/Summer Location:
Steppingstone Farm Museum in Havre de Grace
461 Quaker Bottom Rd. Havre de Grace, MD 21078
Link to Farm Museum directions

Fall/Winter Location:
Harford Community College, Chesapeake Center dining room. Take Thomas Run road and go to the roundabout to entrance #2, parking lot C, building C. HCC policy for COVID-19 is that you must wear a face mask while in the building. Link to map and directions

Past meetings


SBA meeting March 8, 2023 at 7PM

Meeting is live at Harford Community College and on Zoom.

Speaker: Dr David Peck/Betterbee Director of Research and Education (via Zoom)

Topic: Your bees in winter and preparing for spring

Dr. Peck is the Director of Research and Education at Betterbee in Greenwich, NY, where he assists in product development and research, and also teaches classes and develops scientifically-sound educational materials. His doctoral work in Cornell University's Department of Neurobiology and Behavior was supervised by Professor Tom Seeley. His dissertation research focused on the transmission of mites between bee colonies, as well as the mite-resistance traits of the untreated honey bees living in Cornell's Arnot Forest.

After earning his degree, he has continued to research varroa/bee interactions, including fieldwork in Newfoundland, Canada (where varroa still have not arrived) and Anosy Madagascar (where varroa arrived only in 2010 or 2011). He has served as a teaching postdoctoral fellow in Cornell's Department of Entomology, and is still affiliated with Cornell through the Honey Bee Health program in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Peck has kept bees for more than a decade, though his home apiary is often full of mite-riddled research colonies so he doesn't usually produce much honey.



Upcoming Meetings:

Past Meetings (with links to notes, when available)

January 13, 2021 Stephan Repasky Single brood chamber management
February 10, 2021 Zac Lamas What can 100 bees and a queen tell us about the bee world? Using this new method to study viral transmission.
March 10, 2021 Dr. Sammy Ramsey Varroa after the fat: Current research endeavors to fight the mite.
April 14, 2021 Panel discussion: spring management
May 12, 2021 Cybil Preston Mite treatment
June 9, 2021 Show and tell: favorite bee gadgets
July 14, 2021 David Papke Hive management techniques
September 9, 2021 Lloyd Snyder Fall management
October 13, 2021 Dewey Caron Reading Bee Hives
November 10, 2021 SBA Panel Hive winterizing demonstration
January 12, 2022 Amy Vu Overview of The BeeMD, lab resources and current research
February 9, 2022 Mark Dykes The Bee Squad Recording: click here for the zoom recording
March 9, 2022 SBA panel Spring management techniques
April 13, 2022 Steve Repasky, EAS. Master beekeeper Swarm prevention with SBA local swarm prevention methods
May 11, 2022 Cybil Preston, MD state bee inspector Pests and diseases
June 8, 2022 Show and tell
September 14, 2022 SBA panel Fall management
October 12, 2022 Bob Kloss The latest information on Oxalic Acid from EPA labeling to the latest science experiment findings
November 9, 2022 Mark Fiegl Excellence in extracted honey
January 11, 2023 Doug Shuman World of Bees